Word: worded
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...refusal to pay for elective abortions also falls within the immediate penumbra of the free-speech right not to be forced to, as Supreme Court justices proclaimed, "confess by word or act" any particular view of "politics, nationalism, religion or other matter of opinion." The Supreme Court has protected under this aspect of free speech a Jehovah's Witness's refusal to salute the American flag and a refusal to carry a license plate with a libertarian state motto...
...problem with Paglia's use of the word is that she takes it beyond the strictly literary realm, adding all sorts of political and sociological undertones, and the result is extraordinarily vague. Yet, in this vague sense, the word gets tossed around quite frequently. The definition of a term that is useful for understanding literature has been bent out of shape, blown full of hot air and basically stretched to such a degree that it has ceased to have any meaning at all. The real postmodern dilemma isn't figuring out how to fight off some sort of vague monster...
...heard Harvard professors define "postmodernism" in two ways which have seemed satisfactory. The first definition is that postmodernism is everything that comes "after modernism." This doesn't sound so great at first, but at least defining the word by associating it with a particular time constraint gives it some concrete meaning. The second definition adds to the previous one by saying that postmodernism is really a problem, not a statement or a set of values. It's a problem of how we can express ourselves, and of how we can understand the expression of others, in the often confusing...
...that we can think about making educational reforms. Yet purging our souls of postmodernism is undoubtedly the wrong way to go about affecting change. We'll have to wait to see whether "postmodern" will prove to be a useful and enduring literary term. But Paglia's use of the word as an expression of her own vague disgruntlement-however justifiable or unjustifiable her anger may be-does a disservice to the issue she would like to address. As a means of discussing problems within our educational system, grumbling that everything has become too "postmodern" just doesn't make very much...
...generalissimo is not untouchable. Britain's court of appeals Wednesday ruled that General Augusto Pinochet has no immunity from prosecution, opening the way for London's courts to hear a Spanish extradition request. Violent demonstrations erupted in Chile following the decision. But with the immunity issue resolved, the final word on Pinochet's fate will now rest with the Labor party government. "They could release him on compassionate grounds," says TIME London bureau chief Barry Hillenbrand, "but there'll be strong pressure from within the party to proceed. This government has cloaked itself in the mantle of human rights...